Welcome. Ask away; and please include photos with your questions. Lotsa smart folks here who are usually friendly and willing to share their experiences. May we ask where you live; and what kind of lemons you are growing?

I live in south Alabama, right on the coast, 8b. I'm not sure what all kind of lemons these are. Some of them I acquired from my lemon water drinks while I was out to eat. A few of them may be Meyer. I recall buying one Meyer lemon for some seeds. Is there a way that I could ever determine what kind of lemon trees these are? I can tell some differences and similarities between them all. I planted these all at the same time. One is struggling, I will post a photo later, I think I may have overwatered. It's all so fascinating.

Katrina, great endeavor and welcome to the forum :) They look awesome, can not tell yet what kind of lemons and just heads up, don't be heartbroken if some of them don't make it, a lot depends on the strength of each seed. So don't overwater, give them lots of light, warmth, half dose of fertilizer every two weeks and watch them grow:)

And the seeds you may have planted from a Meyer lemon will very unlikely produce Meyer lemons; if you want a Meyer, you have to buy a grafted Meyer.

Welcome Katrina! Good luck with your seedlings. I agree with John that (while keeping your seedling babies), you may want to invest in a grafted meyer tree to get lemons. Be careful...citrus are addictive and we are all here to help you on your way ;-)

Welcome! As others have mentioned Meyers won't come true from seed but some of your others may, with seed grown fruit its sometimes a craps shoot on if the resulting fruit is equal to or inferior/superior than the original. As it usually takes 10+ years for seedling lemon trees to fruit many people don't want to risk 10+ years of care only to find out they have a less than stellar variety. But if your enjoy keeping houseplants/gardening and have tall ceilings I don't see why growing then from seed wouldn't be a fun albeit long term endeavor. Seed grown trees need to reach a certain node count before they are mature enough to fruit so make sure not to prune too much or at all, they will get really tall before they mature and start flowering. If your looking for fruit sooner a grafted tree can product fruit much quicker and stay a smaller more manageable size. Good luck on your citrus endeavors! You're in good hands here with fellow citrus lovers.

Those tree pots are a good choice for seedlings because you are less likely to get root rot and it gives them plenty of room for their roots. That is what I use for my seedlings and they work great.

Hi Katrina, looks like you're already getting possessed by the need to grow citrus! I think it's great you're trying to grow seeds from lemons but it is true it may take several years to actually produce fruit. If grown outdoors in a lot of sun, the tree may start to fruit even after 5 years. It will just depend on how much it grows each year.

When you grow citrus from seeds, the seeds are usually genetically different from the parent trees since it is a mix of genetics of the parents. The only time you will get an actual clone of the citrus it came from is if you get a polyembryonic seed. A seed that sprouts more than 2 plants at once is polyembryonic. You may get some in your pots. If you do, make sure to keep them! One will be a child plant (mixed genetics) and one will be a parent clone. I hope that makes sense :) keep those double plants if you're interested in getting a named variety. Once it grows up and makes fruit, it will be possible to identify which fruit is the parent clone and which is a hybrid child! Sorry the blast of information, welcome to the citrus forum!

Wowzers yall. This is all some really great information! I am totally going to research tree grafting, but if you'd like to offer any insight, please do. Also, I don't know anything about fertilizing. I never considered it for these little plants. I love reading about all of this! And thank you all for the encouragement!

Check this out:

Could this possibly be an polyembryonic seed? I noticed that the seed had two tiny root tip beads, and they eventually started spouting from each other, as shown. It was amazing, and thinking about this still blows my mind. Or was this just a freak mutant occurrence? When I went to actually plant them, they just fell apart. It doesn't look like the little baby one will make it. I didn't know what to do with them.

I've just started planting seeds this summer/fall and I planted a very puffy looking grapefruit seed in paper towel and ziplock bag awhile ago. It sprouted 2 plants from one seed and had its own roots so yours is probably polyembryonic too! One is growing a lot slower than the other though. If yours fell apart that easily, you can plant them side by side a bit separately for more light and see if the small one will pull through. Your seedlings are tiny but so vivid green!

You also won't need to fertilize yet. Technically the first two leaves of the plant will actually be pulling nutrition from the seed it's attached to. Yours looks like it broke off though so I'm not sure what will happen. The next two leaves are the real ones that photosynthesize with sun. I think most ppl advise to start lightly fertilizing after it has at least those first two real leaves so a total of 4.

Hi Katrina,

Looks like you've got the citrus bug! I would eventually select maybe 2 or 3 of your most vigorous lemon seedlings and grow those up. They are going to get huge over time! Hope you realize that! And you may only have so much room and energy to find places for these TREES. LOL!

The true lemons should be more vigorous than the Meyer seedlings, I'm thinking. So that may give you a clue as to what they are.

In the meantime, they make interesting foliage plants even if they never bloom. And the leaves are aromatic when crushed. But they are also useful to learn how to grow citrus successfully. And when the time comes when you want to purchase a bearing plant, you'll be good to go!

Hi Katrina and welcome. Yes your little seedling polyembrionic and my understanding that those are the kind of seeds true to the plant they came from. Still a long time until you will see any citrus. Do you know what kind of lemon this seed came from? Most here use osmocote plus (plus is for micro minerals) and foliage pro. Citrus likes to be feed very regularly and needs a lot of nitrogen. Good luck with your citrus adventure :)

kvetchlambkin, I started growing these in a ziplock bag too! A friend of mine pulled a lemon seed out of his water while we were out to eat and told me about the process, and I've been intrigued ever since. It's probably the best and most interesting something I've gotten into in years. I'll be very interested to hear how your seedlings grow! I planted my lemon seeds at around the same time.

If I ever come across a seed that looks like it may sprout two plants again, I will now know more about it, I'm so glad yall have given me this knowledge! The small one did not pull through. Should the other still be of particular note now the the little is gone? I am 99% sure that this is the one:

Regardless, this one is of particular interest to me because the seed is in three, and it just looks so cool.

Dave, I do realize that these are trees! lol :)

As time continues to move forward, I am aiming to have space. Currently I have a spare bedroom that I am heavily considering turning into a grow room. I've got some good outdoor space as well, for when the time comes. It seems like I will have time to work it all out. If nothing else, I'm enjoying the experience and experiment in the moment! Perhaps it is indeed the citrus bug! I am eager to learn more.

Susanne, I am not sure what kind of lemons any of these came from. Thank you for the fertilizer information. According to some of what I read on this thread, it may be time for that soon.

I did not previously know all of this about the seedlings' first leaves! A few of them now have multiple leaves. Here's an update :

Katrina, keep in mind that in zone 8b you may actually be able to grow some citrus varieties outside!

"a grow room".... that brings back old memories!!!

Oh yeah, John? What kind of memories? What were you growing?

Organic entertainment; I was a creator.

The most common lemons sold in U.S. supermarkets are 'Lisbon' (it's a good lemon). The slightly larger lemons with slightly glossier skin are 'Eureka'.

Lemons grow true from seed about 60% of the time, but even when they don't the offspring is still most likely to be basically the same as it's parents.

Most citrus best to plants right after eating the fruit